Board Member and Wife Recognized

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TCC BOARD MEMBER AND WIFE RECOGNIZED FOR CHILD ADVOCACY

Honored with Citizen-Advocate Award from Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – (Dec. 11, 2006) – Tidewater Community College Board member Bruce Meyer and his wife, Connie, received the Citizen-Advocate Award from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy at a Dec. 7 dinner honoring them and Legislator of the Year, Mary Margaret Whipple.

The Citizen-Advocate Award, given annually for 24 years, recognizes a citizen, a couple or an organization for making a significant impact on public policy affecting poor and marginalized people in the state.

“We chose Bruce and Connie Meyer for their masterful work with us on legislation to mandate Virginians to report child abuse and neglect,” says Rev. C. Douglas Smith, executive director, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. “This is a bill we’ve been working on for four years; thanks to the Meyers, it’s now a law. They were very much a part of the strategy and helping crystallize the message, particularly to connect with our legislators in Tidewater.

“The Meyers prove again and again that when people come together around compassion, they can make a big difference, no matter what party they are,” adds Smith.

Past Citizen-Advocate Award winners include Bishop Walter Sullivan, the Virginia Coalition for Children’s Health, Patrice Schwermer and Rovenia Vaughn, the first female president of NAACP’s Virginia Conference.

Bruce Meyer, a long-time advocate of the college, joined TCC’s Board this fall. The TCC Board acts in an advisory capacity to the State Board for Community Colleges and performs such duties with respect to the operation of TCC as may be delegated to it by the State Board. Its membership represents the cities TCC serves: Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach.

Tidewater Community College is the second largest of the 23 community colleges in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enrolling more than 37,000 students annually. The 37th largest in the nation’s 1,600 community-college network, TCC ranks among the 50 fastest-growing large community colleges. Founded in 1968 as a part of the Virginia Community College System, the college serves the South Hampton Roads region with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach as well as the TCC Jeanne and George Roper Performing Arts Center in the theater district in downtown Norfolk, the Visual Arts Center in Olde Towne Portsmouth and a regional Advanced Technology Center in Virginia Beach. Forty-four percent of the region’s residents attending a college or university in Virginia last fall were enrolled at TCC. For more information, visit www.tcc.edu